Well, it’s been an interesting week to say the least. I was so happy to be finished with radiation treatment last week… elated… thrilled… the hard part was over.. right…. wrong!

Actually since completing therapy, my leg has gotten signifcantly worse. This is the “has to hurt if it’s to heal” portion I was foretold of… but no one told me just how much this was going to hurt. It’s been only 6 days, and I probably have to endure another 3-4 weeks of this “healing” process.

Painful doesn’t even begin to describe it. It isn’t just the skin burns, it’s the swelling that’s hurting the most, causing pain deep inside my leg… all the while of course my skin is on fire. I have creams and painkillers, yes, and ice packs are my new best friends, but the pain is unreal and almost unmanageable.

I am having a lot of trouble walking, it hurts to bend my knee, it hurts to stand, the pain is overwhleming. The swelling around my knee is excruciating.

If you’re very interested, see far below for the picture of what my leg looked like on Saturday. But be warned…. it’s not pretty. Be very warned. It’s like Chernobyl meets my leg. It is not pretty.

OK, you’ve been warned.

Anyway, on to the horses.

Despite being a total gimp, I have been mangaging to get a little driving work in. I drove Chewie on Thursday and Jesse on Saturday morning. I had planned to take Chewie & Luke out for a drive, but the skies were threatening thunder, so I delayed that drive until Sunday morning.

Everyone is doing great! I didn’t have time or physical ability to get the tandem working this past week, so hopefully I can do that in the upcoming days. I need to make some adjustments to the tandem turnout in the form of shortening up the leader traces to shorten the gap between the two horses. It’s all a bit of a learning process, but my extensions I added were too much. I was at the end of my driving lines and Dixie kept getting tangled in the traces. Not good.

Chewbacca worked in the arena during the week, although he feels it is too hot to work while he still has a winter coat. Poor guy. Sunday morning he went out again for a good 2 1/2 miles ish- I didn’t quite take a distance.

Is it bad we were gone an hour? Really? Hmm…. I know our average trot is 3-4 miles an hour. I need to be doing 7 – 8 if I ever hope to do a successful marathon. Oh boy.

Anyway, we pretty much walked the whole drive and it was almost uninteresting.

We took the trail first and followed it around a newly cut (and incredibly bouncy) route. … and it was nice, until we got sunk in mud… again. That’s the second time that’s happened. Well, I guess it tests the horse’s endurance and driving ability to still pull forward while they are sinking and the carts are too. Good thing it was only about 20 feet and we were free.

We went down the road some ways and had a run in with the local law. Apparently a cop who clearly does not like horses, decided to pull us over in the middle of the road and check to see if we were in violation of local ordinances. I’m not kidding. So while he’s radioing in to to check local laws, a large group of bicyclists come by and have to weave between Luke and the cop car. Luke was NOT happy. I managed to get Chewie out of there, down the road a bit and turned around to come back to the hold up, but the cop had 2 lanes of traffic stopped, horses stopped, bicyclists toppling over one another to get past without getting run over by unhappy pony, and traffic stopped at an adjoining intersection.

Needless to say, both my husband and I were furious. Rider use those roads regularly, too, and I have been personally using them driving for almost 4 full years. I’ve never had a cop harass us the way this guy was. It was just ridiculous and we have every right to be on the roads as the riders, the bicyclists, the joggers, and the cars. It’s a very horsey area, and the whole situation really made my blood boil.

After that we headed back. The horses were hot and tired, and it was getting to be over 70 anyway, with their winter coats… just not fun.

Oh, I think I sufficiently embarrased the horses, too, by putting on their new fly bonnets.

Luke was not impressed with his, but he wore it well, I thought. Oh, that building behind him there… is the police station. We drive by it on every drive. It’s 1/4 mile down from the barn. Usually the cops we do see are pleasant and amicable and will chit chat with us.

The guy who pulled us over was rude and nasty and clearly in a bad mood. We swung by the station on the drive back to get the phone number so we could call to complain. We are very unhappy.

Anyway… By the time we got back to the barn, Chewbacca was actually, I think warmed up enough that he wanted to go for another drive. He was moving along beautifully, and gives me hope and inspiration for CDE’s!

How do you think he looks in his green fly bonnet?

He did NOT like it. Kept trying to shake it off when I first put it on, but by the time he drove a bit with it, he was good. I think he looks embarassed. 🙂

lol.

Stick around for more interesting adventures… gets better every time, I swear.

Ok, below is my thigh… remember… you’ve been warned…..

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About kshai1715

I am a lifelong equestrian, photography enthusiast, sci-fi lover, and sci-fi convention & costuming geek that also loves movies and video games. I am a hard working 30 something woman that survived cancer and am looking forward to a long, healthy, self-empowered life. Welcome to my blog and I hope you enjoy reading about my horses (and the rest of my life) as much as I like writing about them.

P.S. I can’t begin to tell you how much I LOVE your comment on Fugly re: making the Triple Crown races for 4 year olds… alas, I think it will never happen, but it absolutely would change the face of American racing for the better. All I can think about is my beloved Zenyatta, who didn’t race until she was four. Look how well THAT worked out! Retired after 20 races, sound as a dollar. John Shirreffs or Graham Motion, those guys would be the trainers for me FOR SURE.